Papers by The Rev. Ken Howard
The International Journal of Religion and Spirituality in Society, 2017
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Socio-Historical Examination of Religion and Ministry, 2019
Since the publication of Kenneth Howard’s 2017 article, “The Religion Singularity: A Demographic ... more Since the publication of Kenneth Howard’s 2017 article, “The Religion Singularity: A Demographic Crisis Destabilizing and Transforming Institutional Christianity,” there has been an increasing demand to understand the root causes and historical foundations for why institutional Christianity is in a state of de-institutionalization. In response to Howard’s research, a number of authors have sought to provide a contextual explanation for why the religion singularity is currently happening, including studies in epistemology, church history, psychology, anthropology, and church ministry. The purpose of this article is to offer a brief survey and response to these interactions with Howard’s research, identifying the overall implications of each researcher’s perspective for understanding the religion singularity phenomenon. It explores factors relating to denominational switching in Jeshua Branch’s research, social memory in John Lingelbach’s essay, religious politics in Kevin Seybold’s s...
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Socio-Historical Examination of Religion and Ministry, 2019
Taking Jesus’ call to love our neighbors seriously requires engaging them in the neighborhoods wh... more Taking Jesus’ call to love our neighbors seriously requires engaging them in the neighborhoods where they live. However, neighborhoods are transforming demographically faster than ever before. If we can help congregations more quickly understand their neighborhoods, there is a much greater likelihood that they will grow to love them as they love themselves. The question before us is, how do we help faith communities and their leaders engage missional opportunities that are emerging from rapid population change? The goal of the FaithX Project is to make it possible for faith communities, their leaders, and the judicatories that support them to employ location intelligence and predictive analytics in order for them to discern emerging missional opportunities. FaithX then helps them to create effective missional strategies for engaging those opportunities by asking four essential questions: What is our neighborhood? Who are our neighbors? What are our neighborhood’s issues and opportun...
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Kenneth W. Howard, “The Religion Singularity: A Demographic Crisis Destabilizing and Transforming Institutional Christianity,” International Journal of Religion and Spirituality in Society 7, no. 2 (2017): 77-93., Jun 1, 2017
The purpose of this article is to trace the emergence of a worldwide church demographic crisis th... more The purpose of this article is to trace the emergence of a worldwide church demographic crisis that the author calls the “Religion Singularity,” and to project its impact on the future of institutional Christianity. For nineteen centuries, Christianity experienced strong and steady growth in the total numbers of Christians, worship centers, and denominations worldwide. Since then growth in the number of Christians has continued largely unchanged. But growth in the number of denominations and worship centers turned sharply upward in recent decades, substantially exceeding the growth rate of the total Christian population. This differential is driving a concurrent decline in the size of those institutions to unsustainable levels by the end of the century. The author suggests that denominations are unlikely to survive this severe downsizing. Meanwhile, given their smaller size and more organic structure, worship centers are more likely to survive the religion singularity than their lar...
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Kenneth W. Howard, “The Religion Singularity: A Demographic Crisis Destabilizing and Transforming Institutional Christianity,” International Journal of Religion and Spirituality in Society 7, no. 2 (2017): 77-93., Jun 1, 2017
The purpose of this article is to trace the emergence of a worldwide church demographic crisis th... more The purpose of this article is to trace the emergence of a worldwide church demographic crisis that the author calls the “Religion Singularity,” and to project its impact on the future of institutional Christianity. For nineteen centuries, Christianity experienced strong and steady growth in the total numbers of Christians, worship centers, and denominations worldwide. Since then growth in the number of Christians has continued largely unchanged. But growth in the number of denominations and worship centers turned sharply upward in recent decades, substantially exceeding the growth rate of the total Christian population. This differential is driving a concurrent decline in the size of those institutions to unsustainable levels by the end of the century. The author suggests that denominations are unlikely to survive this severe downsizing. Meanwhile, given their smaller size and more organic structure, worship centers are more likely to survive the religion singularity than their lar...
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
International Journal of Religion and Spirituality in Society, 2017
The purpose of this article is to trace the emergence of a worldwide church demographic crisis th... more The purpose of this article is to trace the emergence of a worldwide church demographic crisis that the author calls the “Religion Singularity,” and to project its impact on the future of institutional Christianity. For nineteen centuries, Christianity experienced strong and steady growth in the total numbers of Christians, worship centers, and denominations worldwide. Since then growth in the number of Christians has continued largely unchanged. But growth in the number of denominations and worship centers turned sharply upward in recent decades, substantially exceeding the growth rate of the total Christian population. This differential is driving a concurrent decline in the size of those institutions to unsustainable levels by the end of the century. The author suggests that denominations are unlikely to survive this severe downsizing. Meanwhile, given their smaller size and more organic structure, worship centers are more likely to survive the religion singularity than their larger counterparts, but only if they are willing to become vision-guided and experimental.
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Exploring a third way of Christianity beyond the current artificial, distorting, and destructive ... more Exploring a third way of Christianity beyond the current artificial, distorting, and destructive distinctions of conservative and liberal, discarding unscriptural strategies of Christian unity based on certainty, security, and control, in favor of a transcendent yet practical approach to Christian community based on faith, hope, and love.
[Note: This is a published work, I am seeking comments in preparation for my next book.]
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
This paper grew out of a discussion I had with a classmate from high school. Our first several ex... more This paper grew out of a discussion I had with a classmate from high school. Our first several exchanges focused on updating each other on what had happened in the decades since our graduation. Once we discovered that both of us had become Christ-followers, the discussion turned to sharing our respective points of view on a variety of subjects – prayer, spiritual life, the Bible – and eventually to the issue of sexual orientation. My former classmate was surprised to hear that I had a very high view of the inspiration of Scripture, yet favored the full inclusion of gay and lesbian people in the life of the Church. He asked if I would mind explaining my thinking on this subject in a plain and straightforward way. This article is my response to that request.
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Originally a Masters of Divinity Thesis for which the author was awarded Honors in Church History... more Originally a Masters of Divinity Thesis for which the author was awarded Honors in Church History, this book traces the development of Jewish Christianity from its beginnings in the earliest Christian communities through its apparent disappearance in the fourth or fifth century. The author’s thesis is that within the diversity which characterized the Jewish Christianity of the early Church, there existed at least one Jewish Christian sect whose theology stood within the acceptable boundaries of orthodoxy of the greater Church, that this sect existed through at least the fifth century, at which point it was declared heretical by the Church Fathers and eventually died out despite the fact that it remained within the bounds of orthodoxy and considered itself a part of the greater Church. The thesis also suggests that the increasing antipathy of the Church toward Jewish Christianity was the result of a variety of interrelated influences operating over several centuries. Some of these influences included the changing demographics of the Church and the accompanying clash of cultures; the increasing isolation of Jewish Christianity from the predominantly Gentile Church; power struggles between competing Christian communities in Palestine, as well as Rome’s interest in asserting its primacy; theological and pastoral concerns, which were well-intentioned but which resulted in increasingly narrow views of orthodoxy and orthopraxis; as well as outright anti-Jewish feelings.
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Anglican Theological Review, Jan 2010
Explores where the Church is stuck today between conservative and liberal visions of Christianity... more Explores where the Church is stuck today between conservative and liberal visions of Christianity, how it got this way, and what might be a possible way forward that transcends deadend US/THEM divisions.
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Drafts by The Rev. Ken Howard
This paper grew out of a discussion with a former classmate which I had not seen since high schoo... more This paper grew out of a discussion with a former classmate which I had not seen since high school days. After we discovered we both since had become Christ-followers, the discussion turned to sharing our respective points of view on a variety of subjects – prayer, spiritual life, the Bible – and eventually our views on sexual orientation. I favored the full inclusion of gay and lesbian people in the life of the Church; he did not, yet both of us claimed a high view of the inspiration of Scripture. He said he could not reconcile those two positions, and asked me to explain how I could.
This article is my response to that request.
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Conference Presentations by The Rev. Ken Howard
Conference Presentation at the 2016 Religion and Society Conference in Washington, DC (on paper b... more Conference Presentation at the 2016 Religion and Society Conference in Washington, DC (on paper by the same name)
Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact
Uploads
Papers by The Rev. Ken Howard
[Note: This is a published work, I am seeking comments in preparation for my next book.]
Drafts by The Rev. Ken Howard
This article is my response to that request.
Conference Presentations by The Rev. Ken Howard
[Note: This is a published work, I am seeking comments in preparation for my next book.]
This article is my response to that request.